Meredith stepped up to the cliff face, and passed through the seemingly solid surface smoothly.
Inside, there was total darkness. Then, a torch flared into existence. Then another and another and another until the room was entirely lit by eight burning torches on the walls, casting dancing shadows on the walls as they burned.
Meredith was in an old, natural cave, with the back vanishing in darkness beyond the edge of the light cast from the torches mounted on the wall. Ten feet ahead of her, there was a simple, stone tomb with a sword and shield carved on the lid. It looked very old, and it didn’t take a historian to realize that this was very much out of place for the region.
The old man stood behind the tomb, sword in hand. He looked up as Meredith entered. She was now close enough to realize that he was semi-translucent. He resheathed his blade and looked her up and down, a slight frown appearing on his face.
"A woman; all these years and you are a woman?" he says, and then sighs. He speaks English crisply and cleanly with absolutely no trace of an accent. Meredith had been around the Institute long enough to recognize magically translated speech when she heard it. "No matter, who am I to argue with fate… I have been waiting for you, young knight. Through countless seasons, through the rise and fall of civilizations and cultures, I have been waiting. Through times of goodness and, as now, times of great evil, I have been waiting."
